I got the Music in me!

As is the case with anything that I like, my taste in music runs the gamut as well. I like everything from jazz to classic rock to Christian praise and worship music to Indian flute music. And that is only a starting sampler. Tomorrow is Sunday so on the way to church I will pop in a CD of the Newsboys (my favorite Christian band from Australia) and enjoy listening to them while I drive to church. Depending on where I am going or what I am doing the music I listen to can help set the mood or get me in the right frame of mind for something I need to do. If I need to get pumped up about something I could listen to Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine for a latin beat that chases away the blues and gets the blood pumping. I love classic rock as well and spend a lot of time listening to 105.1 (KOOL-105) which plays a pretty wide variety of oldies. Everything from the Beatles, Tina Turner and Michael Jackson to Dire Straits and Earth, Wind and Fire. I really enjoy turning on that station and not being sure of which era they will hit me with. It might be the 60's, 70's or 80's. Or sometimes it can be a mixture of everything. When the radio has too many commercials or ads, I will flip to my CD player in the car and pick one of the six that are on the spinner.
I also found through my association with Boy Scouts that I enjoy Indian Flute music. I have several CD's of various artists playing this very special instrument. It is very soothing and restful and I have noticed that is what plays sometimes in the hospital where I work in the patients rooms. It provides a sense of rest and peace for them as well. I have an IPod that I listen to when I am walking or on my treadmill. It is easier to listen to the music without outside distractions or noises. Sometimes I have to turn it up a little to tune out my kids. I also play the piano and like listening to piano music on CD. Since those levels of playing are way past mine it is nice to just sit and listen to it for awhile. I also like real classical music. Composers like Beethoven, Bach and Mozart. When I am taking a hot bath or trying to read without too much background noise.
All in all my taste in music is pretty wide. Do I have a favorite? I don't think so because I like it all. Depending on the day of the week or the time of day. Wild and crazy to soft and relaxing, what a nice way to be. I think I will turn on some soft music to go to sleep by. Goodnight!

My two favorite movies

Of all the movies I have enjoyed in my life, I would have to say that my favorite is a toss-up between "Fiddler on the Roof" and "The Sound of Music". Can you tell I like musicals by that selection? I really enjoy that genre of film. The storyline of "Fiddler" deals with Jews living during the time of Czarist Russia. The main focus is on a man named Tevya and his family. A traditional way of life is very important to Tevya and his wife Golda. His daughters all start balking at those traditions as they grow up and seek lives on their own outside the family environment they grew up in. The oldest doesn't want a match made for her by the local matchmaker. She wants her poor tailor that she grew up with. The next travels to Siberia to be with the rebel that she loves who was tossed into prison. The third had the utter temerity to fall in love with a Russian soldier of the Christian Orthodox persuasion. She marries him and is (temporarily) disowned by her father. The songs that Tevya and the other cast provide are fun to listen to, enjoyable and help tell the story of this family. Towards the end of the movie, an edict is issued from the government that all the Jews in their town are to leave. They are evicted from the homes they have known their whole lives. But their fortitude and good spirits are amazing and they all realize that, after all, it is only a place they are leaving and they are together and can start over in a new place. This is such an enjoyable movie for me to see over and over again. From the songs to the storyline, I never get tired of it.
My other favorite is "The Sound of Music". From the opening scene on a mountain in Austria and the song that goes with it I was hooked. The panoramic views of the Alps are breathtaking. The songs are all enjoyable, each in their own way. Whether it is Julie Andrews singing with Christopher Plummer or it is the children, they are all beautiful. The storyline involves this nun wannabe who gets called out of her convent to be a governess for these 7 children. She doesn't fit into the nun role but doesn't want to leave the convent. She sucks it up however and starts on a new adventure. She puts her whole heart into caring for these 7 children and winds up falling in love not only with them but their Naval militant father as well. The captain definitely loosens up when he realizes that he has fallen in love with this wayward nun as well. This takes place during the time of the Nazi occupation of Austria. Captain Von Trapp and Maria get married and go on a honeymoon. When they return, their town is draped with flags of swastikas and the Captain gets a telegram that he must report for service in the Nazi regime. That goes against every moral and ethic he has, so he takes his new wife and seven children and they escape over the mountains to Switzerland. Eventually, they wind up in America in Stowe, Vermont but you don't get that from the movie. From start to finish, both of these movies leave me laughing or crying in turns, but they end up with me feeling very satisfied with the outcome of the films.

Family: What I Believe!

The essay I am looking at is "A Legacy of Integrity" . The summary of the belief is Integrity. The author is talking about is how he learned what he knows about integrity from his father. That is the belief. Integrity and how it either is or isn't woven into who we are. How it is part of the choices we make and how we can live up to ourselves if we have it. Growing up all he heard was about integrity. He learned through what he called hard lessons that integrity must be the driving factor in his life. Tahat he must "keep his word" and "follow through on what he says". It was beaten into him until he was sick to death of hearing the word integrity. So he decides to rebel (as most red-blooded teenagers do) and steals some change from around the house to buy himself and a few friends "Cokes". This boy was growing up in India and a coke was a big deal to him and his friends. Kids always think they can get away with things. He didn't. Mom and Dad find out, she screams and Dad just stays silent (which says it all to the son). Then his father says he wonders if his son can be a person of integrity. Always was he trying to shrug off his fathers voice. But that was the one thing ingrained in him his whole life. Then the author had kids and raised them the same way. The children would roll their eyes and tune him out. But he taught them the values and integrity he was raised with. That was his fathers legacy to him and his children.
I believe the author does strike a balance between communicating and preaching. He is really letting his audience know about all the ways he was taught integrity and values and all the ways he rebeled against it. Then he talks about how he raised his children in the same way and with the same values and emphasis on integrity. I'm sure his children would've thought their dear old dad was coming off as being preachy. If they had to listen to dad going on about integrity day after day, preaching probably would've been a nice thing for them to say about dad.
The voice/tone I am hearing is a bit of regret. Regret that maybe he didn't really appreciate the knowledge and insight his father was giving him when he was growing up. But later, appreciation. Thankfulness for the lessons he did learn and the way he was brought up. Since he did choose to teach his own children those same lessons. I thought it was a really good essay.

What I Believe!

This is actually an easy one for me. I believe that God created everything and is in charge. Without Him in my life I can do nothing that I can be proud of or that is worthwhile. The catch is you have to let him be in charge. Instead of thinking "I don't need any help on this or that, I can do it all by myself", I know that when my line of thinking goes that route everything falls apart. I believe we choose to walk in love or to go a different route like blaming anyone and everyone else for anything bad that happens. That everything does happen for a reason. We don't know usually what those reasons are, but I'll get all the answers I need in the next life. What I always have to remember is not to ask God to bless what I am planning, but for me to plan what he is blessing. How do I find these things out. Prayer, quiet time with the Word (the Bible), just listening for that still small voice. Shutting out the distractions of everyday life to listen for that quiet voice can be a challenge. Everything in this world is geared to not be able to do that.
I believe God still does miracles today and did not just perform them in the Old Testament. I am a case in point. I was diagnosed 16 years ago with cervical cancer. A friend invited me to a seminar that was being given by a pastor and her church from Hawaii. During that service, which was amazing, they had a laying on of hands and prayer for my particular medical need. They had been doing biopsies and were looking at removing further parts of my insides. Two days later I went back to the doctor for further tests. The cancer was (and is) gone. I had my third son three years after being healed and have been free of that disease for 16 years now. My piano teacher was diagnosed with breast cancer a year and a half ago. They wanted to do a radical mastectomy. She is only in her early thirties. She and her husband decided against the surgery. They believed God for her healing and when she went back to the doctor six months later, the lump was gone and she has been cancer free for a year now. No medical explanation or intervention can explain either of these two miracles. My faith is what got me through not only something serious like cancer, but everything that goes on in my daily life. The reports of man are not what I choose to believe. I have seen too many miracles happen not to know that God is in charge and He always walks in love.

A Babbling Blog

OK, this is a take two on this blog entry. I had written the entire thing out last night, hit some weird and whacked out button, and the whole thing disappeared. That then became the most frustrating thing that had happened to me this weekend. Not knowing what to write about I decided to just kind of babble about my weekend. Make this entry a bit more like a journal entry that I would write in. I am cramming for an exam this morning. All of my grades are important for me to get enough points to get into the nursing school I have applied for. So I'm trying my best to keep everything up and all together. An interesting challenge so far. Not sure if it is working, but I am doing everything in my power with the amount of hours I have in the day to make it happen. Picked up my son yesterday from a campout he had been on this weekend. He was one soggy Boy Scout by the time I got to him. They had had 3 inches of snow during the night and that much stuff on the tent collapsed it. Needless to say, much wetness followed that. But when I caught up with him he was in high spirits and said he really enjoyed the campout, even with the inclement weather. I missed church due to the conflict in picking him up and studying for this exam. Not a good way to start my week. I need to get grounded in the Word so I can get grounded for the rest of the week. Then there is the whole working three jobs while trying to go to school. Even though I job share one with my husband, that leaves a lot of work out there left for me to do. But it is the only way to keep body and soul together. That is the Protestant work ethic I was raised with. Put in a good days work, be honest, get an honest dollar at the end of the day and never ask anyone for handouts. That is also the reason for me to go to school. To further my education, "better myself" if you will, and be in a better paying career so I don't have to work three jobs.
Then there's work. Two are working at churches (one for over 13 years now) and I share those duties with my husband. My newest is working at the hospital. I love my new job! I am working as a CNA (nursing assistant) at a wonderful hospital that is relatively close to home. I never know what to expect when I arrive at work. I could have half the patients on the floor, leaving the other half to the other CNA, or they could "float" you to a different department if you are not needed or you can be a "sitter" with a patient who can't be left unattended as they might pose a danger to themselves or others. That is what I got to do last night. It made for a very long night in one way, but also provided some additional study time for my exam today. So I think it was a toss up as to how I felt avoiding legs and arms out to kick and punch at me, and the chance to get in several extra hours of study time. Sitting is definitely not one of my favorite parts of the jobs. Especially if you have to do it on a night shift when the lights are turned down low and everyone else is mostly asleep. But it is a case of when you are assigned to do it, that is what you have to do. I file it under "other duties as requested by supervisor". I am always busy from the time of punching in until I leave the floor. Never a dull moment, especially when dealing with such a wide range of people from all walks of life. So, before this entry disappears like my last one, I believe I will call it a wrap.

Grieving my special "beach getaway"

When I was growing up in San Francisco and was troubled or needed to think, I would go down to Ocean Beach (not far from my house) and walk for miles along the shoreline. As the waves would wash in and then flow back out to sea I got the opportunity to clear my head or make decisions about life, love or whatever was bothering me. The crisp smell of the sea air in my nostrils, listening to seagulls searching for whatever snack they can find, and feeling the fine sand between my toes were the key things to getting me focused and at peace with myself and the world. When I was deciding whether or not to move to Colorado with my then-boyfriend at the ripe old age of 19, I went down to my beach, walked for hours, thought about the pros and cons and made my decision to come here and start a new life.
Whenever I would go back to California and visit my parents who are still living there in the house I grew up in, I would go down to The Great Highway, park my car, grab a sweater and flip-flops and start walking along the beach. What I discovered is that it is not the same feeling for me as it was so many years ago. Whether it is because too much time had passed is hard to say. My beach used to be not quite pristine, but lovely to look at and gaze upon. When I go back now I am appalled at the amount of vandalism, trash and grafitti that are rampant all along the shoreline. You can't take off your sandals for fear of cutting your foot on the broken glass or leftover needles that are casually hidden by the fine sand. The crowds of people now are much larger, louder and less aware of the beauty and peace around them. It seems as if they don't care about where they are or why they are there. Boardwalks that are broken. Needles in the sand that did not belong to diabetics. Grafitti which is painted on what seems like every inch of the concrete walls that are there to hold back the ocean if it were to overstep its borders. All these things that weren't a part of the landscape when I walked along my beach 25-30 years ago.
An era passed and I didn't even realize it had happened until I walked the shoreline and the peace I had once found there eluded me. No longer could a decision about life be made in this place. Too much had changed. The atmosphere and soul of what was a very important place to me were gone. Washed away like the millions of grains of sand that wash in and out with the tides. The peace I had found there had gone with the sand out to sea.

Alternative subject to Broncos blog

Since I don't follow the Broncos in any real way except for a yeah if they win I decided to write about something else. Two things actually. First off, celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary on October 1st and having a party to celebrate over the weekend. We invited a few of our closest friends, our children and my husbands parents. This was an interesting combination to put together for any length of time. I was hoping that this group of people, with their polar opposite opinions about politics and religion would not generate any arguments about candidates and the upcoming election. My oldest son and his fiance did not come, saying they didn't know about the party (they were informed) and that absence alone alleviated most of the conflict that would've occurred that I was worried about. It had been over 3 years since my in-laws had been to our house and they only live in Evergreen. Lots of issues there with their disapproval of my marrying their son. They always told him he could do better than me. Which always generated lots of warm fuzzies for me (NOT)! Now that they are getting older (78 and 75) they seem to be mellowing out a little, since they did not initiate any of the conversations I was worried about. I'm all for a good discussion about differing opinions, but some of these can get downright nasty and leave a bad taste in the mouth.
The time has flown by very quickly. We have been together since we were 18 years old, have raised three sons, gone through several careers between the two of us and are just now buying our first home. The house is our anniversary present to each other. Although I am supposed to be getting an anniversary ring since we couldn't afford an engagement ring back in the day. An understated band with a few diamonds on it. We haven't been able to find the time to go shopping for it yet. Soon I hope. So, we close on our house at the end of this month. Looking to lock in a really good interest rate for the long term. The market is favoring us as buyers right now. Yeah. It is a sweet looking home in the foothills below Evergreen. No garage, but we are hoping to build one onto it. It has the right amount of bedrooms and bathrooms, and a basement that is a dream come true for my husband to use as a workshop. Our older sons will be living in it to start off with. My husbands job requires us to live on the park where he works. But maybe in a few years he will be able to change his position within the company and get a non-resident ranger position. Then we could move into our cute little house in the mountains by the creek.